Joan Crawford as Mildred Pierce: 10 Quotes About the Iconic Role

While Mildred Pierce wasn’t Joan Crawford's breakout role, it was her comeback role and helped her shed the perception that she was box office poison – which started in the late 1930s when her films began losing money. Yet, this role proved Crawford still had it, earning her an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Here are 10 quotes about Crawford’s iconic title role in "Mildred Pierce":

Vote Now: Which Actress Is Your All-Time Favorite?

1. “The archetypal Joan Crawford movie, with Joan as a housewife turned waitress who finds success in business but only anguish with her daughter (Ann Blyth) as the two of them compete for the affections of smoothy Zachary Scott.” – Don Druker, Chicago Reader

2. “Crawford reaches a peak of her acting career in this pic.” – Variety

The Variety staff credits Crawford and the cast for taking on this not-readily-screenplay-material novel and states, “The dramatics are heavy but so skillfully handled that they never cloy.”

3. “The movie had had lasting cult appeal, and it’s not just because of all those milky close-ups of its star in varying states of maternal distress.” – Alessandra Stanley, The New York Times

4. “Joan Crawford is playing a most troubled lady, and giving a sincere and generally effective characterization of same.” – The New York Times

Tell Us: Who Is Your Favorite Actor of All Time?

5. “Joan Crawford’s life story reflects the story of Mildred Pierce in some ways, making her well-suited for this role.” – Robert Roten, Laramie Movie Scope

6. “Ambitious career women have also been consistently punished for stepping out of their place, entering into men’s domain and thus competing with them for desirable jobs and rewards. The best example of this type is Joan Crawford’s Oscar role, as the suffering mother in ‘Mildred Pierce.’” – Emanuel Levy, movie reviewer

7. “Though ‘Mildred Pierce’ is renowned for marking Joan Crawford’s return to the apex of Hollywood stardom.” – Nick Schager, movie reviewer

8. “Crawford is well cast as a protective she-wolf, dominating the stock company male players that surround her and her face, showing the first sings of age from the meat grinder of show business, is well matched against the smug freshness of Ann Blyth.” – Jeremiah Kipp, Slant magazine

9. “Crawford makes Mildred human enough, and pitiful enough, in her slavish pandering to Veda that we alternately feel sorry for her and view her with contempt.” – Nick’s Flick Picks

10. “Fur-coated, she takes us, mesmerized, through major flashback sequences that depict her life in the kitchen, a parade of useless men and Veda’s maturation into a viper.” – Angie Errigo, Empire Online

Erigo gives the picture a five-star rating with the verdict, “Wow! It may not be art or good taste, but throbbing melodrama doesn’t come with more conviction. Even to those usually turned off by the tough Crawford, Mildred is compelling.”

Vote Now: Which of These Actresses Stands the Test of Time?

Related Stories:

• Greatest Classic Drama Characters: 7 Roles That Live On Through the Big Screen
• Classic Drama Movies: 5 Movies That Shaped the Genre